Ministry of Defence

Iraq: Military Aid

Baroness Helic: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to integrate training on sexual violence and gender issues into all training given by British forces to the Peshmerga in Iraq.

Earl Howe: Protection of Civilian (PoC) training is now integrated into all of the training courses delivered to Peshmerga troops by UK training teams. This includes training on sexual violence and gender issues.UK trainers have also delivered training to coalition partners' training teams within the Building Partner Capacity site at Erbil. This includes German, Norwegian, and Italian trainers. All UK trainers deployed to Iraq are now trained to deliver PoC training prior to leaving the UK.

Military Aid

Baroness Helic: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will list the countries where the United Kingdom is providing training to foreign armed forces; and of those training missions, whether they will list those which include training in preventing and responding to sexual violence.

Earl Howe: I refer the noble Lady to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces (Penny Mordaunt) in the House of Commons on 2 July 2015 to Question number 4649 to the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty).   Further to this, I attach two tables which detail the countries receiving training in preventing and responding to sexual violence.  



Armed Forces Training
(Word Document, 30 KB)




PSVI Training
(Word Document, 64.5 KB)

Mediterranean Sea: Refugees

Lord Moonie: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what Ministry of Defence costs in respect of naval operations concerning migrants in the Mediterranean are currently being funded by the Department for International Development.

Earl Howe: The Department for International Development is not providing funding for current Ministry of Defence naval operations concerning migrants in the Mediterranean.

Ministry of Defence: Public Bodies

Lord Moonie: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what organisations have been established in the last five years by the Ministry of Defence that are wholly funded from within its budget; and which of those are not subject to civil service pay scales, terms or conditions, and why.

Earl Howe: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has set up two arm's length organisations in the last five years that are wholly funded from within its budget.Defence Equipment and Support was set up as a bespoke trading entity on 1 April 2014. It has a number of freedoms and flexibilities to manage its own business, outputs and workforce within an operating cost envelope set to drive significant efficiencies. This includes the freedom to implement its own pay and grading structures to reflect the highly specialised labour market in which it operates.The Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) was established by the Defence Reform Act (DRA) 2014. The SSRO is wholly funded from within the MOD budget, via grant-in-aid. SSRO employees are not subject to civil service pay scales, terms and conditions. The DRA specifies that SSRO employees are not in the civil service of the state, ensuring the independent discharge of their duties.

Defence: Inflation

Lord Moonie: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of defence inflation over the next five years.

Earl Howe: The Ministry of Defence does not produce future forecasts of defence inflation. Historic figures can be found in the 2013/14 Defence Inflation Estimate, attached here for convenience.  



Defence Inflation Estimate
(PDF Document, 266.76 KB)

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Pakistan: Terrorism

Lord Ahmed: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the level of terrorist activity in Karachi, Pakistan, and whether there is any involvement by Al Qaeda, Taliban and the Muttahida Quami Movement.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: There is a high threat from terrorism and other violence throughout Pakistan, including Karachi. The British Government regularly reviews the security situation in the country and is aware of reports of attacks claimed by various militant groups in Karachi. The main terrorist threat continues to come from Tehrik-e Taleban Pakistan (TTP) who have a mainly anti-state focus but also maintain, and have stated, an intent to launch attacks on western interests. Although Al Qaeda is diminished in Pakistan and under severe pressure, it is still capable of devising sophisticated attacks. Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) is a political party.The Government is committed to partnering Pakistan in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, in the interests of both countries. We will continue to support Pakistan in developing its capacity to deal with terrorism, and in addressing its root causes.

Department for International Development

Africa: Tuberculosis

Baroness Nye: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the proportion of HIV-related deaths in (1) Kenya, (2) Malawi, (3) Mozambique, (4) Nigeria and (5) Rwanda that are due to tuberculosis.

Baroness Verma: World Health Organisation (WHO) data shows that, in 2013, the proportion of deaths amongst people with HIV that were due to TB was as follows:   Proportion of deaths amongst people with HIV that were due to TB in 2013Kenya16%Malawi7%Mozambique46%Nigeria40%Rwanda10%

South Sudan: Food Supply

The Earl of Sandwich: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the food security situation in South Sudan; and to what extent the United Kingdom will respond bilaterally as well as through the specialised UN agencies.

Baroness Verma: The most recent South Sudan Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report dated 27 May 2015 shows an increase in the number of people facing severe food insecurity. 4.6m people / 40% of the population are estimated to be unable to meet their basic food needs. The UK is the second largest bilateral donor to the humanitarian response in South Sudan, contributing £172m since the start of the crisis, along with an additional £88.9m to the regional response for South Sudanese refugees. This support is provided both bilaterally and to specialised UN agencies.

South Sudan: Health Services

The Earl of Sandwich: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to secure a medical pipeline in areas where the government of South Sudan is unable to provide basic drugs for health clinics.

Baroness Verma: DFID has provided £11.5 million to the jointly funded (US, Norway and UK) Emergency Medicines Fund for drug distribution in the three conflict states of South Sudan. In addition, critical gaps in the other seven states are being covered through the £120m DFID-managed Health Pooled Fund supported by US and World Health Organisation.

UNESCO

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of UNESCO.

Baroness Verma: In 2011 UNESCO was one of the agencies assessed in the Multilateral Aid Review. That review rated UNESCO as Poor Value for Money and sought significant improvements in results based management, a strengthened focus on value for money, continued reductions in administrative overhead and improved transparency.In 2013 we conducted a follow-up review of UNESCO. This concluded that the organisation had made reasonable progress with reforms, particularly in the areas of greatest weakness in the 2011 assessment.

Syria

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest estimate of the number of Syrians displaced (1) within Syria, and (2) abroad.

Baroness Verma: There are an estimated 7.6 million internally displaced persons within Syria, and there are now over four million refugees from Syria in neighbouring countries. According to the UN, there have been over 278,000 Syrian asylum applications in Europe between April 2011 and May 2015.

West Bank: Armed Conflict

Baroness Tonge: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the cost to the public purse in the last five years of the conflict in the West Bank, both directly and via the EU.

Baroness Verma: The UK provided £349 million in support of Palestinian development between 2011-2015 and will provide a further £72 million in 2015/16. This includes support for both Gaza and the West Bank.DFID's programme contributes to UK policy objectives of a negotiated two-state solution. Following the conflict in Gaza last year, the UK provided £17 million of immediate humanitarian assistance and pledged a further £20 million of early recovery assistance at the Gaza Reconstruction conference in Cairo.We have already disbursed over 80% of the pledge. European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) is the main EU financial instrument for the OPTs which provides funding to support governance at local and national levels, private sector and economic development and water and land development. In 2014, EU funding through the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) amounted €309.5 million.The UK contributes to the EU Budget as a whole, and not to individual instruments within it. The UK’s share of the EU’s expenditure in EU instruments is approximately 14.5%.

St Helena: Aviation

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the first commercial flights to St Helena will commence.

Baroness Verma: The first commercial flight to St Helena will be in February 2016, subject to completion of the remaining airport construction works and to meeting all regulatory requirements.

St Helena: Tourism

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many tourist beds (1) are currently available, and (2) are under construction, on St Helena.

Baroness Verma: St Helena Government confirms that 101 tourist beds are currently available in serviced rooms, with an additional 38 serviced rooms planned for construction between 2015 and 2016. There are also 90 self-catering rooms on the island.

St Helena: Tourism

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many tourist beds will be required on St Helena to support one weekly flight when the island’s airport opens in February 2016.

Baroness Verma: St Helena Government estimates that 80 to 160 tourist beds will be required when the air service becomes operational.

St Helena: Tourism

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many proposals to create more tourist beds on St Helena (1) have been passed, (2) are currently under consideration, and (3) have been rejected, by the island’s planning authority.

Baroness Verma: St Helena Government has confirmed that since July 2014, five applications for additional accommodation have been approved by St Helena’s Planning Authority and two are currently under consideration. None have been rejected.

St Helena: Tourism

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to increase the number of tourist beds on St Helena; what progress has been made in this regard since the decision to build an airport on the island was made in 2010; and what incentives they are offering to encourage inward investors to provide tourist facilities on the island.

Baroness Verma: The Department for International Development supports Enterprise St Helena (ESH), the St Helena Government’s development agency. Enterprise St Helena offers grants to assist local businesses with proposals to increase the quantity and quality of tourist accommodation. Fifteen new serviced rooms have been added since 2010, with an additional 38 serviced rooms planned for construction between 2015 and 2016. The Saint Helena Government has introduced a range of tax incentives for investors, including tax credits, rollover reliefs and accelerated depreciation.

Civilian Stabilisation Group

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people are currently on the Civilian Stabilisation Group list maintained by the Department for International Development, broken down by gender.

Baroness Verma: The Stabilisation Unit’s Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG) consists of over 1,350 individuals. We are committed to being an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications to the CSG from every background. We would need to carry out a manual search of each individual’s profile to provide data broken down by gender, which would incur disproportionate cost.

Civilian Stabilisation Group

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale: To ask Her Majesty’s Governmenthow many members of the Civilian Stabilisation Group have been deployed in other countries in each of the last five years; and how many are currently deployed.

Baroness Verma: The Stabilisation Unit has deployed: DateNumber of CSG deployed20113520124820131332014114201575 On 23 July 2015, 55 members of the Civilian Stabilisation Group were on deployment.

Civilian Stabilisation Group

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much funding is currently allocated to the deployment of members of the Civilian Stabilisation Group.

Baroness Verma: Deployments are funded by the programmes they are supporting rather than as a standalone cost. This ensures deployments are directly tied to HMG objectives and can flex according to demand. The cost of maintaining the Civilian Stabilisation Group falls under the Stabilisation Unit’s core budget, which for CSG training and management comes to £1,345,000 p.a.

Civilian Stabilisation Group

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the Civilian Stabilisation Group in the light of emerging priorities and the anticipated agreement of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations in September 2015.

Baroness Verma: The Stabilisation Unit is conducting an internal review of the Civilian Stabilisation Group skillsets to ensure it meets HMG priorities, both now and in the future. To inform this work, wider multilateral and international aims for UK capability will be considered.

Civilian Stabilisation Group

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any of the Civilian Stabilisation Group have experience of devolved administration within the United Kingdom.

Baroness Verma: The Stabilisation Unit’s Civilian Stabilisation Group database does not provide the functionality to search for specific areas of an individual’s career history that does not directly correlate to stabilisation. A manual search of each individual’s profile would be required in order to provide this information and, as such, it would not be possible to obtain the information required without incurring a disproportionate cost.

Overseas Aid

The Earl of Sandwich: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the Department for International Development budget in the last two financial years was allocated to (1) British non-governmental aid organisations, and (2) indigenous non-governmental aid organisations directly assisted in-country by the Department; and how much was similarly allocated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence.

Baroness Verma: Information on all UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) is only available on a calendar year basis. The percentage of total DFID and FCO Bilateral ODA disbursed through UK based non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) for 2012 and 2013, the last years for which figures are available. Year% Total DFID ODA% Total FCO ODA20128%3%201310%3%  The percentage of total DFID and FCO Bilateral ODA disbursed through developing-country based NGO’s for 2012 and 2013. Year% Total DFID ODA% Total FCO ODA20122%2%20133%1%   The Ministry of Defence did not disburse ODA to non-governmental organisations during 2012 or 2013.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

BBC: Royal Charters

Lord Clement-Jones: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the appointments of the eight advisers on the renewal of the BBC’s Charter conform with the seven principles of public life, in particular having regard to any conflicts of interest.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The BBC Charter Review Advisory Group has no legal status and no decision-making functions. It operates on a voluntary basis and members offer their time for free. These are not public appointments and therefore the Group is not set up under the Cabinet Office guidelines for public appointments.Further details of the group can be found in a letter dated 27 July from to to Baroness Grender following up from a debate on the 16 July on the BBC Charter Review. A copy of this letter has been deposited in the Library of the House.

Broadband: South West

Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the regional and national economic effects of the present rate of the roll-out of superfast broadband in Devon and Somerset.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The Connecting Devon and Somerset Phase 1 broadband project is approximately half way through delivery of its target of providing superfast broadband coverage to 276,000 premises. In June 2015 Connecting Devon and Somerset entered into a further contract under Phase 2 of the broadband programme to provide coverage to a minimum of 4,659 premises in Exmoor and Dartmoor. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published a study with analysis on the impact of superfast broadband in 2013. This is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-broadband-impact-study--2

Department for Work and Pensions

Children: Poverty

Lord Tyler: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies Living Standards, Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2015; and how they plan to respond to the findings that nearly 63 per cent of British children living in poverty are in working families.

Baroness Altmann: The recent IFS report is positive about the Government’s new approach to tackling the root causes of poverty: they said that “focusing on a broad range of inputs into life chances and causes of poverty is sensible.” They also add that “family worklessness certainly is a sensible thing to track if one wants to reduce the prevalence of low living standards.” This Government knows that work remains the best route out of poverty. Research shows that around three-quarters of poor children in families that move into full employment exit poverty. We are committed to supporting parents to move into work, increase their earnings, and keep more of what they earn. Universal Credit, our investment in childcare and the introduction of the National Living Wage will all play an important part. The Government also recognises that improving skills and progression is the key to making work pay. That is why under this Government we intend to create three million more apprenticeships over the next five years, and to help people move on to better jobs by improving qualifications and providing additional support through Jobcentre Plus.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Forestry Commission

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what land and property has been (1) disposed of, and (2) acquired, by the Forestry Commission since the publication of the report of the 2012 Independent Panel on Forestry.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: From 4 July 2012 to 21 July 2015, two sites in the north of England totalling 0.12 hectares were disposed of as a result of property rationalisation. In the west of England 15.5 hectares of leasehold was surrendered. During the same period land acquired by, or gifted to, the Public Forest Estate was 79.56 hectares across four sites in central, east, west and southern England. This represents a net increase in PFE land for this period.

Home Office

Human Trafficking: Mediterranean Sea

The Earl of Sandwich: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many traffickers across the Mediterranean have been (1) apprehended, and (2) prosecuted, in the United Kingdom, or any other European Union member state, during (1) the last year, and (2) since such trafficking began.

Lord Bates: The information requested is not held centrally. Her Majesty's Government has established a dedicated law enforcement team to tackle organised immigration crime in the Mediterranean region. 90 officers will be deployed in the UK, Mediterranean and Africa to pursue and disrupt these callous organised crime groups profiting from the people-smuggling trade.

Terrorism

Lord Avebury: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the agreement between the Metropolitan Police Service and the Independent Police Complaints Commission regarding the investigation of public complaints relating to Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000.

Lord Bates: The IPCC and MPS reached an agreement on the handling of Schedule 7 complaints, which was issued by the High Court on 12 January 2015 in the form of a consent order. The consent order is available to the public at:http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/Schedule_7_Consent_Order.pdfWe will also place a copy of the consent order in the Library of the House.

Slavery

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to conduct a consultation with civil society during the summer of 2015 concerning the guidance available to businesses on what to include in their slavery and human trafficking statements.

Lord Bates: Statutory guidance on transparency in supply chains will be published to coincide with the commencement of the transparency provisions in the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We have already held a public consultation on what the statutory guidance should cover and received responses from a wide range of civil society and private sector organisations. These responses are being taken into account in the development of guidance.

Telecommunications: Databases

Lord West of Spithead: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the proposed timetable for the passage of a new communications data bill through both Houses in order to meet the present legislation's sunset deadline of December 2016.

Lord Bates: The Government are committed to introducing a Bill on investigatory powers early next year, so that it can receive Royal Assent before the sunset clause in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act comes into effect at the end of 2016. In order to meet that timetable and allow the full parliamentary scrutiny, we intend to bring forward a draft Bill for consideration in the autumn, which will be subject to full pre-legislative scrutiny, including by a Joint Committee of both Houses.

Middle East: British Nationals Abroad

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many British nationals are estimated to have travelled abroad to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups since October 2014; how many have since returned to the United Kingdom; and what is the total number of such people who remain in Syria.

Lord Bates: Around 700 people who are of concern to the Police and Security Services are thought to have travelled to the region since the start of the conflict. We estimate that around half of those have returned.

Police: Biometrics

Lord Scriven: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 16 July (HL1344), in the light of the fact that some police forces, including the Metropolitan Police Service, have stopped adding faces to the National Database until the law has been clarified, why the Home Office has not yet distributed guidance about adding faces to the database until the review is complete.

Lord Bates: There are a number of police forces (including the Metropolitan Police Service) which do not, and never have, uploaded custody images to the Police National Database (PND). Of the Forces that have been uploading Custody Images to the PND, none have ceased doing so. Guidance on the operational uses of PND is issued by the National Police Chiefs Council.

Asylum Support (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2015

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the basis of their assessment in the Explanatory Memorandum for the Asylum Support (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2015 that the current payment methodology by which additional cash payments are made for each child under the age of 18 "provides more than enough to cover the needs of individual children".

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to publish the results of discussions with members of the National Asylum Stakeholder Forum and of the coalition "Still Human Still Here", as referred to in the Explanatory Memorandum for the Asylum Support (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2015.

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government why no transitional arrangements for families in receipt of asylum support have been put in place prior to the Asylum Support (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2015 coming into force.

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to communicate the change in the rate of asylum support due to take effect as a result of the Asylum Support (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2015 to recipients of that support.

Baroness Lister of Burtersett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what sources of information other than data from the Office for National Statistics were used in identifying essential needs under the Asylum Support (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2015.

Lord Bates: Asylum seekers, including dependants of asylum seekers, who are destitute are provided with accommodation and a cash allowance to cover their “essential living needs” - the legal test. The level of the allowance is kept under regular review.The most recent review of asylum support payments earlier this year looked at data spending on essential items by the lowest decile (10%) income group in the UK taken from the latest report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on Family Spending published on 2 December 2014. Other data from the study, specifically in relation to spending by households with children, was also reviewed. In addition, research was undertaken into the actual costs of particular essential items, including the cost of food stuffs, clothing, toiletries, household cleaning stuffs and non-prescription medication, as well as travel and communications.Whilst the ONS data is useful in identifying levels of spending on particular items, it does not provide the definition of “essential living items”. This is provided for in international and domestic legislation, most notably the EU Reception Conditions Directive 2003, Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Nationality Act 1999 and the Asylum support Regulations 2000. In addition, guidance in respect of which specific items could be considered as essential was provided by Justice Popplewell in his 2014 judgement in respect of the Refugee Action challenge to the Asylum Support Rates.The Government has no plans to publish minutes of meetings held with external partners or to share more widely papers provided by them which were considered in the review. Despite the planned reduction in the rate, the payments are still sufficient to meet the essential needs of asylum seekers and their families. Those affected were notified of the changes by letter, sent out on Thursday 16 July, which provided more than 3 weeks notice of the intended reduction in their payments.The adequacy of the payment rates will be kept under review through the annual review cycle and in line with the statutory test to ensure that the right level of support is provided to asylum seekers and their families.

HM Treasury

Pensions: Advisory Services

Lord Bradley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to publish information on the uptake and effectiveness of Pension Wise.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: Since its launch in April, Pension Wise has helped nearly 950,000 people understand their options and make informed choices about what to do with their retirement savings. Nearly 18,000 free guidance appointments over the phone and face to face are being delivered and more than 925,000 people have used the Pension Wise website, with many people returning to the site regularly.   The government is closely monitoring the operation and effectiveness of the Pension Wise service. This ongoing monitoring is part of a wider programme of evaluation that the government is undertaking to ensure that Pension Wise is working effectively, delivers value for money, and meets consumer needs.

Government Departments: Telephone Services

Lord Quirk: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 9 July (HL898), what training in communication skills is provided for the officials in (1) HM Revenue and Customs, (2) the Home Office, (3) the Ministry of Justice, (4) the Department for Work and Pensions, and (5) the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, who are responsible for helping members of the public who telephone with complaints or requests for information.

Lord Quirk: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 9 July (HL898), whether there are target times by which calls from members of the public are expected to receive attention when telephoning (1) HM Revenue and Customs, (2) the Home Office, (3) the Ministry of Justice, (4) the Department for Work and Pensions, and (5) the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: All new HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) telephony advisers receive two days of call handling soft skills training, prior to handling customer calls. Further call handling training is provided depending on the needs of the advisor.   The first escalation for complaints from an adviser is to a Team Leader. 80 per cent of complaints are successfully handled at this point.   HMRC’s Personal Tax Operations has a specific team who deal with customer complaints received via telephone.   HMRC has a target of answering 80 per cent of all calls received.   Information regarding the training and performance on telephony issues for other Government Departments is not held centrally and should be obtained from the Departments concerned.

Aggregates Levy

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the European Commission decision regarding exemption from the aggregates levy.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The European Commission concluded a State aid investigation into various Aggregates Levy exemptions on 23 March 2015. The Commission had originally approved all the levy exemptions in 2002, but were required to carry out a State aid investigation as a result of legal challenge. The Commission’s decision found all the levy exemptions lawful except for part of the exemption for shale aggregate.   The Chancellor announced in his Summer Budget that all of the lawful exemptions would be reinstated from 1 August 2015.   The Commission have ordered recovery of State aid provided by the exemption for some types of shale aggregate. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have recently written to potentially affected businesses. The government will continue to work with the industry to minimise the impact of recovery on affected businesses, and any businesses that are concerned should contact HMRC as soon as possible.

Public Sector: Borrowing

Lord Kennedy of Southwark: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how much public-sector borrowing will grow up to 2018–19 as a consequence of the fiscal changes announced in the recent budget.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The government has set out a strategy that reduces the deficit at the same rate again in this Parliament as over the previous Parliament - that means reducing the deficit by 1.1 per cent of GDP a year on average, for the next four years. While, as set out in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s July Economic and Fiscal Outlook, borrowing is forecast to be £21 billion higher up to 2018-19, the resulting smoother fiscal path leads to a higher surplus and lower public sector net debt as a share of GDP, relative to the March Budget.

Money Laundering

Lord Rooker: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to require estate agents to carry out anti-money-laundering due diligence checks on the purchaser of a property, in addition to those they carry out on the seller.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The Government will consult this year on transposing the 4th EU Money Laundering Directive in order to comply with the revised global standards of the Financial Action Task Force. We will use this to consult on other changes to improve the effectiveness of the UK’s anti-money laundering and counter terrorist finance regime, including whether or not to require estate agents to conduct due diligence on the buyer as well as the seller of a property.   The Government is committed to protecting the financial system and national security, through effective and proportionate use of financial sanctions, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist and proliferation finance measures. All those dealing with property transactions in the UK, including banks, lawyers and estate agents, are required to actively detect and prevent money laundering including reporting suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency and conducting customer due diligence using a risk-based approach.